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To See Issue In Person, Judge Takes City Hall Tour

Led by a Federal judge yesterday, a small group of lawyers, reporters, and photographers ambled through City Hall Park and up the 11 steps of the ornate and historic building.

As the group paused, one of those present, Norman Siegel, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, remarked wistfully to the judge, Harold Baer Jr., that the City Hall steps had seen a lot of history -- and ''a lot of people's feet'' during demonstrations and protests.

But a lawyer for New York City, Daniel S. Connolly, noted dryly that the steps had a more mundane purpose: allowing people to ''walk in and out of the building.''

The exchange, almost lost in the din of traffic, was a revealing moment in Judge Baer's unusual walk yesterday, which took him from the Federal Courthouse in lower Manhattan to City Hall.

Judge Baer has been presiding at a trial in which an AIDS awareness group, Housing Works, represented by the Civil Liberties Union, has sued the Giuliani administration, charging that its limit of 50 on the number of people who may gather on the steps and plaza of City Hall is unconstitutional.

The city has defended the limit on security grounds. Last week, Mr. Connolly, a senior attorney in the Corporation Counsel's office, presented evidence to Judge Baer that the number of death threats against Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani had increased. A senior police official also testified that there were concerns about the possibility of terrorist attacks on City Hall, in light of the prosecution in New York of several suspects in the bombings of United States embassies in Africa last year.

Later yesterday, Mayor Giuliani was asked at his briefing about the judge's visit to inspect the layout of the plaza.

''There are thousands of people in the park,'' the Mayor said. ''The park is not closed. The park is open. People are walking around the park, and they are enjoying it.''

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He added: ''Now, the security of the building is a matter for the police and the F.B.I., and the reality is, I don't make those things up. We live in a world in which there are dangers. There are dangers of terrorism. I have to be responsible about that. Others can choose not to be.''

Judge Baer once supervised Mr. Giuliani when both were young prosecutors in the United States Attorney's office. But they have disagreed in recent years. The judge ruled twice last year against the Giuliani Administration in earlier phases of the case of the City Hall steps.

And in 1996, the Mayor sharply criticized a decision by Judge Baer in which he suppressed evidence, including 80 pounds of cocaine, that had been seized in a drug case and criticized the police involved in the arrest.

But the judge's visit to City Hall yesterday could not have been friendlier. The city's lawyer, Mr. Connolly, described the history of the park and the new renovations, and even pointed out some new gas-lighted lamps.

Judge Baer said that he had seen the lamps the night before. ''They looked lovely,'' he said.

At one point, Mr. Siegel said he had heard the administration was considering a new limit of 500 people in the renovated park beyond the plaza and the steps.

''There used to be demonstrations here with thousands of people,'' Mr. Siegel said. ''Abner Louima, 12,000. City University, 10,000.''

But Mr. Connolly said the only limits in the park would be on the number of people who could safely fit in. ''There's no numerical restriction beyond that,'' he said.

As the tour ended, the judge made a remark that suggested he might be looking for a way to settle the festering dispute. ''We'll talk some more, gentlemen,'' Judge Baer said. ''I think we ought to sit down and talk.''